The strident Trump defense is coding and awaiting burial beneath the freshly shoveled dirt of racism. Even the once exuberant Trump defenders such as Boris Epstein and Rick Santorum are offering meek defenses in attempts to avoid the flinging poo hurled by a flailing and scared president. The desperation is palpable, just this week, according to Epstein, Mr. Trump signed an Executive Order to protect the health of citizens who have pre-existing conditions. So, the President signed an EO that is only as strong as the writing hand of the next president, while working to overturn a Congressionally passed law, authored by the Obama-Biden administration, that already guarantees the same protection; and with that, I am supposed to feel comforted?
This blatant attempt to temporarily do what he promised 4 years ago, two years ago, six weeks ago and this past Tuesday has exposed one of his biggest lies to the American people. “You’re going to have such great health care, at a tiny fraction of the cost — and it’s going to be so easy,”he said a month before the 2016 election. If that boast sounds familiar, it should, he said something similar just a few days ago during the debate. He told you prescription drug costs have fallen and claimed credit for the continued drop in crime before his taking office, and in the same breath blames Joe Biden for the chaos he currently oversees from the Oval Office.
There is a scenario that is presented to first-year law students explaining the concept of circumstantial evidence. If someone walks into a room, shaking dry a just closed umbrella, feet soaked in water and raincoat dripping, circumstantially you can assume it is raining outdoors. With Mr. Trump, white supremacist celebrating his endorsement, neo-Nazis, shouting “Jews will not replace us” and later having them celebrate his description of some of them as “very fine people” and denying he is the President of the Virgin Islands “ [I] met with the president of the Virgin Islands" said Trump, to discuss the recent hurricanes that have devastated Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the island.
Enough circumstances…?
I have lived through this before; John Kennedy initially attempted to slow the push for Civil Rights laws feeling it was too soon and the aggressive push would scuttle what he felt was inevitable. President Lyndon Johnson infamously and regularly used the N-word only to pass the Voter Rights and Civil Rights Acts during his presidency. We have heard the tapes of Richard Nixon’s anti-Semitic and racist tirades. Ronald Reagan going to the spot of one of the most horrific civil rights atrocities in history to kick off his race for the presidency was a message. His successor George HW Bush scaring suburbanites (sound familiar) with the specter of a darkened photo of felon Willie Horton.
The difference between Donald Trump and the other officeholders is that he says the quiet parts out loud. For those of you who fool yourself into believing his candor is a virtue, I ask that you check your privilege.
Words have consequences.
In January of 1963 newly elected Governor of Alabama, George Wallace told a throng of onlookers that his platform would be “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever…” Nine months later, the natural gestation period of a human being, four little black girls were blown to bits on a Sunday morning. Wednesday, the current Governor of Alabama issued an apology to the last living survivor Sarah Collins Rudolph. Ms. Rudolph has lived her life since 1963 blind in one eye, a constant reminder of the slaughter of her friends. Tuesday night President Trump told another group of hate-filled would-be killers to “stand back and stand by,” who will issue the apologies 57 years from now?
Vote in 2020 for Change.